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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Knight Light

Full marks to our doggedly determined local campaigner Michael Child for illuminating the way on what's happening to our seafront eyesore, the Pleasurama site.

As we now know, the crumbling cliff face which abuts the site will undergo repairs starting in the autumn this year, and these should be completed by spring 2008 (hurrah!), at which point the developers will begin construction of 14 luxury hotels and 2700 luxury apartments. It was Michael who first broke this astounding news, which is now so official that even the Uranianshave put it on their website.

I'm still a bit puzzled, though. As far as I can recall, the site was signed over by the council to a bunch named SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd, who are now, presumably, the owners. Attempts to find any kind of detail regarding these people have proved less than fruitful.

However, SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd now appear to have handed over the actual development of the site to a company called Knight Developments Ltd, who are presumably this Essex based company. They certainly seem to have a lot of experience building twiddly-diddly 3, 4, and 5 bedroom homes, but don't seem to have much to say on major, prestigious seafront projects. Still, let's hope they're up to the job of enhancing our Monte Carlo style coastline!

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Yes we would all like to know who SPF Ventures UK are. I dunno though - looking at your photo Ive got quite attached to that rectangle of lumpy grass hummocks! Beats anything they plan to put on it so far anyway.

As this is the second press release about the delayed Pleasurama development this year and the previous one had some inaccuracies I have done a certain amount of research into this one before commenting.

First the good news, the contractor in a highly reputable building firm with a good track record, frankly they don’t seem to have ever produced a bad development and I don’t think they would be prepared to damage their reputation by doing so in the case of Pleasurama. They are a large family run company and the managing director spoke to me on my first telephone call, something that suggests we may be moving into an area of cooperation and even local consultation.

If you harbour doubts about their ability to manage the project look at their parent company http://www.knightenvironmental.co.uk/aboutus.htm as well as Knight Developments Limited.

Next the bad news, TDC hadn’t told the contractor about the problems relating to the site and the plans, why this should be simply beggars belief, what their motives could be is beyond any sort of common sense.

So on the one hand we have the environment agency urgently looking into my concerns about the flood and storm risk, while on the other a contractor is appointed but not told about the main problem with the site.

For those of you unfamiliar with the problem here is a brief résumé of the current situation. On some of the plans a line showing the cliff top is included from this it is possible to determine an approximate height for the car park and ground floor above datum. At its lowest the cliff behind the building is 21.7 meters high on the plans the building is shown to be of different heights on the various plans submitted between 18 and 16.75 meters tall. If the building is to be below the cliff top as promised this gives a base line of 4.95 where as the environment agency seem to be talking in terms of about 7 as an absolute minimum meaning that there is an extra 2.05 meters of height that just don't fit.

Next further concerns it is unclear as to whether the intention is to implement the works to repair the dangerous cliff recommended by Jacobs Baptie civil engineers in April 2005 or merely to paper over the cracks.

Overheard in Thanet

Is your hot chocolate gluten free?Man at kioskJust wait til I get hold of yer, yer cunt. Yer fuckin' door won't save yer!Man on phone in streetThere were dead bodies everywhere at my fuckin' birfday do. No, seriously, my missus had to give one bloke CPR!Man on phone in streetYer can't smoke in a petrol station can yer? Fuck it, I'm gonna light up anyway. If I blow meself up I'm gonna charge you compensation!Woman to staff member at petrol stationWhat happened to all those Socialist Workers eh? They joined the bloody Labour Party, that's what!Man to woman in WaitroseSo I grabbed the fuckin' potato peeler and stabbed the cunt.Man sitting outside barTwitter? That's the bit between a bird's twat and her shitter, isn't it?Man on trainYou know the medicine they give us was invented by the Germans in WW2 for their troops, so they could be shot?Man on streetYeah, well, he's a fucking bald headed cunt.Man at Margate football matchYou better choose your sweets, inch yer! I'm not a bleedin' psychic, inn I?Woman to small childI like haring but I don't like it when the dog just bites into it an' it fuckin' screams and then you 'ave to go an' chop it.Man in restaurantI'm a registered businessman!Man on phone in streetI luv 'im, even though 'e raped me an' bit me. 'Cos 'e respecks me.Woman talking to man in streetChild to baboon in animal park: 'Ello!Mother: Don't talk, MatthewChild: Why?Mother: 'Cos it's an animal.

If you come on and start having a go at Margate, it immediately puts everyone's shackles up.

Man talking about the warm-up act at the Alexei Sayle gig at the Theatre Royal, Margate'We are not expecting widespread flooding; however precautions have been deployed and we are doing our upmost to ensure all areas are secure and protected.'Thanet Council press release

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